2024 is going to be a strange year for superhero movies.
Sony Pictures will release three live-action "Spider-Verse" titles, with Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom 3 spread throughout the year. Marvel Studios, meanwhile, only has one event picture coming to theaters, and the hope is that Deadpool 3 can save the MCU and the increasingly unpopular Multiverse Saga.
Then, there's DC.
2023 has been disastrous for the brand, with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle all flopping (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is likely next). While a DC Studios-led reboot looms, 2024 will deliver only Joker: Folie à Deux and, hopefully, the fourth and final season of Superman and Lois.
Even 2025 looks relatively quiet seeing as Superman: Legacy is currently the sole DCU movie heading our way, On the plus side, the year should at least conclude with The Batman II.
Asked by a fan on Threads whether he's concerned that a lack of DC content in 2024 will "kill the brand," DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn replied, "I think it’s great for us for the reset."
This is true and it's the same reason Marvel Studios has taken its time with a new X-Men movie after Dark Phoenix bombed. However, a single year and a Joker sequel might not be anywhere near enough to wash away 2023 - or the past few years - from the mouths of moviegoers who have soured on DC. Does anyone who isn't a hardcore fan know that Superman: Legacy is taking place in a new, rebooted universe?
If Waller, for example, arrives before that and stars a bunch of DCEU actors, then the risk is they'll have no reason to think it's anything other than more of the same.
On the plus side, Gunn appeared to confirm that Creature Commandos is coming next year in a separate reply, so we will have that to look forward to.
Earlier this year, the filmmaker shared his hopes for how the DCEU's final movies would lead into the new and improved DCU. "I think that we’ve gotten lucky with the next four movies because we have Shazam, which leads into Flash, which resets everything, which then goes into Blue Beetle, which is totally disconnected (from everything that came before) and can be a part of the DCU, which goes into Aquaman, which leads into Superman: Legacy, our first big project."
"But the one thing that we can promise is that everything from our first project forward will be canon and will be connected. We’re using some actors from the past, we’re not using other actors from the past, but everything from that moment forward will be connected and consistent."
Are you relieved to (mostly) be getting a year off from DC in 2024?